her husband with them, she would not endure such a condition
of things--she wondered that so many women endured it--but
would take her little ones and go away to earn her own living
under some other roof!




Chapter Five: Wind, Wave, and Spirit


The rambles I have described were mostly inland: when by
chance they took us down to the sea our impressions and
adventures appeared less interesting. Looking back on the
holiday, it would seem to us a somewhat vacant time compared
to one spent in wandering from village to village. I mean if
we do not take into account that first impression which the
sea invariably makes on us on returning to it after a long
absence--the shock of recognition and wonder and joy as if we
had been suffering from loss of memory and it had now suddenly
come back to us. That brief moving experience over, there is
little the sea can give us to compare with the land. How
could it be otherwise in our case, seeing that we were by it
in a crowd, our movements and way of life regulated for us in
places which appear like overgrown and ill-organized
convalescent homes? There was always a secret intense dislike
of all parasitic and holiday places, an uncomfortable feeling
which made the pleasure seem poor and the remembrance of days
so spent hardly worth dwelling on. And as we are able to keep
in or throw out of our minds whatever we please, being